Retailer Field Botanicals Doubles Down On Clean Beauty And Shelf Space

Field Botanicals’ field of play is coming into greater focus.

The 1,100-square-foot store in Augusta, Ga., is both doubling down on its commitment to clean beauty and doubling its shelf space before the end of the year. Although clean beauty has faced scrutiny of late, Field Botanicals is reaffirming its clean beauty value proposition around three key pillars: ingredient integrity, sustainability and community. 

“We’re focused now on the expansion of existing brands that we really align as well as brands that have gone the extra mile when it comes to sustainability and their practices,” says Jennifer Tinsley, founder of Field Botanicals, winner of a 2022 Beacon Award. “For example, we just launched Three Ships, which is B Corp-certified.”

Launched in 2018 with around 30 brands, Field Botanicals’ assortment has grown to 650 products from 55 skincare, makeup, bath and body, haircare and fragrance brands. Among the brands it stocks are UpCircle, Lua Skin, ESW Beauty, Alleyoop, Bitchstix, Lake & Skye, Patchology, Dip, Alder New York and Act+Acre. 

Tinsley is using clean beauty retailer Credo’s Clean Standard, a framework that covers ingredient safety, sourcing, sustainability, ethics and transparency, as a template as she tightens Field Botanicals’ brand and product guidelines. Brands that don’t fit into the updated guidelines will be exited.

Currently, Field Botanicals’ website states that the products it sells are cruelty-free and vegan, and formulated with plant-based additives, plant oils, and botanical infusions and extracts. It prohibits products with parabens, phthalates, sulfates, petrochemicals and ethoxylated ingredients. 

Dimethicone is being added to the retailer’s list of ingredients it avoids, a move Tinsley says is likely to affect Field Botanicals’ makeup selection the most. As the retailer’s second-largest category, Tinsley isn’t taking the move lightly, but is nevertheless prepared to part with popular products to uphold Field Botanicals’ principles.

She says, “Our partnership with Elate Beauty and their popularity within our community, in addition to strong sales of the brand, has solidified my belief that dimethicone isn’t a necessary ingredient for an efficacious cosmetic product…We are already educating our customers about silicones as an ingredient and their impact on the environment and, so far, we’ve had nothing but support from them.”

Tinsley first introduced makeup into Field Botanicals in 2020 just as industry makeup sales were plummeting. The category is fueled almost exclusively at the store by Elate and PYT Beauty. Field Botanicals is Elate’s only American stockist in the Southeast, and the brand accounts for nearly 30% of the retailer’s total business. Tinsley theorizes that Field Botanicals’ low-maintenance makeup customers contribute to the brand’s success at it.

“We’re not Sephora or Ulta where it can get very intimidating for a lot of people,” she says. “Most of our customers don’t want a lot of makeup. They want a blush, mascara and foundation, and that’s it.”

Skincare is the retailer’s top-selling category, which Tinsley attributes to the strong relationship the store has built with its customers. She says, “We have a lot of loyal customers who have a lot of brand loyalty in store because they trust us to assess their needs and point them in the right direction.” 

Masstige and prestige brands like Cocokind, No Make Up, Odacite and Otto Skin Goods are experiencing the most traction in the store with its predominantly 30- to 50-year-old female customer base. Tinsley says that “conscientious” gen Z shoppers are on the rise at Field Botanicals. 

While bath and body products tend to see the biggest uptick in sales over the holidays, shower steamers from the brand Cait & Co are among Field Botanicals’ enduring top sellers. Sexual wellness is gaining momentum after the recent launch of Dame sent products flying off the shelf, says Tinsley. She’s interested in bringing Maude into the store’s assortment. 

For the moment, Tinsley is steering clear of traditional wellness products. A 2020 attempt to merchandise vitamins, teas and collagen powders failed to resonate with Field Botanicals’ customers. “The price points were too high, and the customer got overwhelmed making decisions,” says Tinsley. “Ultimately, I was focused on keeping the store alive then, so I probably didn’t put as much promotion into the category as I should have.”

Field Botanicals leaned on local pickup and delivery orders when its store was shuttered at the height of the pandemic. It kicked off its e-commerce business during that period, and it’s become 22% of sales. Tinsley says, “I don’t even know if I’d have this e-commerce revenue stream coming in right now if it wasn’t for COVID because it forced my hand to do that.”

Buoyed by its entrance into e-commerce, Field Botanicals’ sales increased 30% monthly between 2020 and 2021. Sales continued to accelerate in 2022, registering 36% month-over-month bumps prior to slowing to about 25% month-over-month increases in 2023 to date. The retailer’s repeat customer rate sits at about 50%. 

Field Botanicals wasn’t the only business Tinsley established in 2018. She brought the gen Z-targeted body care brand Field to market almost simultaneously, but exited all of Field’s retail partnerships at the onset of the pandemic to zero in her resources on ensuring Field Botanicals stayed afloat. 

At the time of the pivot, Field had three odor-busting products: aluminum-free deodorant Smell My Pits, body spray Smell My Bod and foot spray Smell My Feet. It was available online and in about 25 doors, including e-tailers and boutiques Brik+Clik, Neighborhood Goods, Citizen Supply and The Grommet. 

“My manufacturing costs on the products had doubled by 2020, so we had to make some hard decisions,” says Tinsley. “If I didn’t focus on keeping the store functional, I could have lost both arms of my business entirely. I’m more focused now on our connections with the community and partnerships with indie brands. I love that so much more than having a brand.”

Field had previously secured partnerships with national retailers like American Eagle and Urban Outfitters after exhibiting at the Indie Beauty Expo 2018 show in Dallas. (Indie Beauty Media Group, owner of Beauty Independent, operated IBE from 2015 to 2020.) 

In January 2020, American Eagle sunsetted the teen-centered clean beauty initiative that Field was a part of. The initiative lasted three months, and Field was on the retailer’s website and in 16 physical stores. Tinsley says, “We had this huge order from American Eagle, and then our buyer calls us and she’s like, ‘Yep, so we’re done. We’re not doing this anymore.’”

Field subsequently departed from Urban Outfitters’ online assortment in May 2020 following nine months of under-performing sales. The retailer was making pandemic-related cuts back then. 

Today, Field is only stocked at Field Botanicals. Smell My Pits was discontinued due to escalating costs, but Smell My Bod and Smell My Feet are store staples. At $18 and $16, the products are sold at Field Botanicals at lower prices than they were at external retailers since Tinsley doesn’t have to deal with the margins required for wholesale operations. She has no immediate plans to expand the line or place it in other retailers again. 

Moving forward, Tinsley is concentrating keeping her close-knit store team happy and motivated while sustainably growing a self-funded business. She says, “We’re not a strong growth company. I definitely want to have a profitable business, but my intent with Field is to have a community-based store and not to be Sephora or Ulta.”